The video monitor in the lobby of the hotel broadcasts the names of their guests. Including the fact that some people are traveling alone.

Thanks for the grandly welcome, Indochine Palace Hotel, but if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather you not display my name in public like that.

As a physically fit white male, I don’t feel particularly vulnerable when staying in a hotel in a strange town. So I don’t feel that this violation of my privacy puts me at risk. But I wonder how I would feel if I were a woman? Would I want it public knowledge that I was alone in a hotel room? Would I feel like the hotel was advertising an opportunity to predators and criminals?

Maybe I’m overreacting, maybe my reaction is influenced by the current dialogue about sexual assault, and disregard for the rights of women not to feel like they could be victimized at any time. But maybe my eyes are being opened to the reality that women deal with every day. That they are vulnerable. That they have to be more cautious. That they don’t enjoy the freedom from fear that I do.

I went to Hanoi last week for a work trip. As I’ve said many times, business travel is not vacation travel. After I returned to Ho Chi Minh City, several people asked me “How was Hanoi?” “I don’t know,” I replied. “All I can tell you is how the airport, hotel, and embassy were. I didn’t get to do anything in Hanoi.”

Although that isn’t totally true. I had a nice dinner with a co-worker. And I got a wonderful unexpected benefit. On Friday evening, in the hotel that I was staying at, a young lady performed on a traditional Vietnamese instrument, and that instrument happens to be almost identical to one of my favorite traditional Chinese instruments.

So I got a little treat. After several stressful days, it was relaxing to sit and listen to the beautiful music. It almost felt like a vacation.

Last weekend I traveled to a coastal town, and we stumbled on a museum in the making. A real estate developer has been collecting old vehicles that the U.S. military left in Vietnam after the war. I think the idea is that they will make a museum as an attraction to lure people to stay in the resort that the company is building.

The process is in the early stages. They have collected some equipment, but they haven’t done much work on it yet. So, in all honesty, the site looks less like a museum and more like a junkyard. Still, there is some interesting stuff.

If you’d like to lose 5-10 pounds in only one week, then pay attention, because I have stumbled on a method to drop weight fast. For the cost of one low-priced meal, you can watch the weight melt away. It’s as effortless as sitting down. And sometimes, kneeling.

Here’s how it works: you eat lunch at a restaurant that looks clean, but really isn’t. Within hours, you will feel the process begin. An unmistakable feeling of impending loss of matter from your body will start to percolate in your gut. Before you know it, your body will begin to relieve itself of parts of you that you no longer need. You will lose 2-3 pounds instantly. And that’s just the start!

As the days go by, you will not be hungry. Think of the money you’re saving on food, as you lose that weight! And when you force yourself to eat or drink something, your body will auto-correct for you, reversing your actions as fast as you can say: “Get out of my way! She’s about to blow!”

I’ve gone through this process three times since I’ve been at post, and each time, I’ve been super impressed by the results. Sure, some people call me “sick,” or “pasty,” or “at death’s door,” but I think they’re just jealous of my slimness. Even the nice nurse at our med unit was so envious that she wanted me to take drugs to counteract my diet plan. Just to humor her, I took the medicine, but we both knew that it wasn’t really necessary.

Added benefit: drugs!

In short, if you need to take a few days off work, and catch up on your sitting around not wanting to move, then I can recommend this method. I promise that in one short week, you will be thinner. You will also have a new appreciation for the simple things in life, like not spending half your day in the bathroom. The benefits of this plan are almost endless.

One word of caution: while you’re on this diet plan, you can’t trust your own farts. ‘Nuff said.

Last weekend a group of us went to Dong Thap (Đồng Tháp) province. The Consulate’s locally-engaged staff organization arranged for us to volunteer at a summer camp for at-risk teenagers. It was a lot of fun, I got to interact with some young people, and help out with an NGO’s work to prevent human trafficking.

A team of us did a workshop on “soft skills,” which is a buzzword in Vietnam lately. Schools here focus on academics, but don’t teach life skills like teamwork, communication, interpersonal skills, and professionalism. The workshop we did combined English practice and communication skills. Essentially, we played games. Even though we were playing a game, I explained to the kids that in order to succeed in the game, they had to listen to what each other were saying, and strategize their own communication. Yes, OK, we played “20 questions.” Stop judging me. It was relevant. Shut up; it was, too.

We also got to do a little culinary exploration. When I told some of my coworkers that I was going to Dong Thap, they smiled and nodded knowingly. They asked if I knew anything about the local cuisine. Of course I didn’t, because I’m an ignorant foreigner who doesn’t know the intricacies of Vietnamese culture. That seemed to amuse people even more.

So the night after we finished the workshops, we all went to a local beer garden for dinner. We got a lot of the usual goodies, beer with ice cubes (you get used to it), and then, a big plate of the local cuisine.